Polymyalgia: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatments

Are you a woman who is over 50 years old? Do you have pain in your muscles and stiffness in the areas of your neck, shoulders, and hips? Do you feel that after a long rest, you feel stiffness in your body? These are some of the classic symptoms of polymyalgia.

Polymyalgia Rheumatica

An inflammatory disease, polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) affects the musculature of the upper extremities and lower extremities. The term comes from the Greek “poly” (many), “my” (muscle) and algia (pain). Put together it literally means “many muscle pain”. The second term “rheumatica” is for “muscle and soft tissues”.

Symptoms

The primary symptoms of polymyalgia rheumatica are fatigue and loss of appetite. Both can lead to weight loss, anemia, feeling of illness and mild fever which are also signs and symptoms of PMR.

PMR and Giant Cell Temporal Arteritis

The symptoms may also be similar to people suffering from temporal arteritis. This is because 15% of the people affected by polymyalgia rheumatica PMR are also diagnosed with temporal arteritis, and 50% of those with temporal arteritis are with polymyalgia PMR.

Because of these facts, symptoms may also include a headache, jaw or facial soreness, scalp tenderness, vision distortion, aches in the limbs due to decreased blood flow and tiredness.

Although no muscle weakness is felt, polymyalgia rheumatica is considered to be connected to some inflammation of the blood vessels. A syndrome known as giant cell arteritis (GCA) is associated with PMR which causes the inflammation. When this happens, loss of vision and other blockages occur. This is due to the narrowing of the blood vessels resulting to slow blood supply.

Causes

How is PMR diagnosed? The cause of polymyalgia rheumatica has not been discovered although genetic factors are being considered.

There is also no singular test to determine it but laboratory exam results will confirm the symptoms of polymyalgia PMR. Two very important blood tests that doctors require for polymyalgia rheumatica PMR diagnosis are Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP). These are inflammatory markers so that the doctors can rule out other diseases with similar symptoms. So doctors will use your medical records, symptom, and physical examinations to make a diagnosis.

Treatments

How do you live with polymyalgia? Is there a cure for polymyalgia rheumatica? Patients suffering from any disease want to find a cure? They will dig into finding the best treatment to relieve them the pain. They will try all possible food supplement or alternative treatment, and synthetic pills and get rid of pain immediately.

Inflammation is usually treated with Prednisone, a cortisone. A patient will experience relief after two to three days of taking 10-20 mg of Prednisone. However, if after three days, no improvement is observed, the diagnosis should be reconsidered.

Pain relievers and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, may not work. However, these are usually taken by many patients as polymyalgia rheumatica treatments.

A maintenance dose of corticosteroid is given for at least one year. If improvement is observed, Prednisone or cortisone is gradually reduced until withdrawn after 6 months. If symptoms persist and giant cell arteritis is suspected with PMR, a higher dose combined with immunosuppressive drugs such as methotrexate will be prescribed.